Cincinnati Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow isn’t making time for small talk about what the Bengals can do this season and how far they’ve come.
In his eyes, if he spends time looking forward, he’ll be cheating himself and his teammates out on the upcoming game. As a player who led the LSU Tigers to a national championship, he knows what’s expected and necessary of him to get a chance to play in a championship game.
That’s why he’s not looking past the New York Jets (1-5). Burrow will be traveling back to New York for the first time since he won the Heisman Trophy there in 2019.
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He’s hoping to make more good memories in the Big Apple.
While Burrow is pleased with the way he and his teammates have played to give the franchise a 5-2 record that has them as the No. 1 seed in the AFC, he’s not content.
“We were always chasing the perfect game,” Burrow said. “And that's not really realistic to achieve. But you're always chasing that. And we're talking about it in there right now. We still haven't played our best game, we're 5-2, we're in a great spot, but we're not satisfied.”
Burrow’s steady and humble approach is exactly what the Bengals need in a season that is unfolding the way it is. To many, Cincinnati’s success this year is a bit of surprise. The Bengals are exceeding expectations left and right.
Why the Jets game will tell us a lot about Bengals
Sunday’s game against the Jets will tell us a lot about these Bengals. Cincinnati heads to New Jersey's MetLife Stadium as heavy a favorite (-10.5) and the Week 8 contest marks the third game of a tough three-game road stretch. If the Bengals can come out of this stretch 3-0, it will say a lot about the leadership in the locker room.
It takes extreme focus to go on the road and win in the NFL, regardless of the opponents. Especially, coming off an emotional division win the week prior.
The Bengals are proud of their performance against the Ravens but as Burrow said, it won’t matter if they don’t take care of business against the Jets.
“It doesn’t mean anything if we don’t go out there and win this week and the week after that and stack these wins and keep getting better,” Burrow said. “If we go 0-10, no one will care that we beat Baltimore in Week 7.”
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Burrow’s head coach, Zac Taylor, is echoing a similar sentiment. Taylor said following Cincinnati’s win in Baltimore his team would need to handle this win in the right way.
It appears Burrow and Taylor are in lockstep with how to handle division wins – go win the next week.
“Now you get a chance to really hammer home a three-game road trip” Taylor said. “I think that’s critical to our development. Some of you guys have been around here these last couple years we had 15 straight road trips where it did not go our way. To have a chance to really flip the script on that and change our mentality start to enjoy some of these bus rides and plane rides and locker rooms after wins is a big deal to us.”
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